The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-06-29
Domestic Education.


The question how we can best edu-
cate the hands of our children is now
exciting interest all over the country.
There is need everywhere of skilled
hand-work. All avenues for brain
workers are crowded to excess. We
have educated our minds to think great
thoughts and appreciate the beauty and
wisdom of life, but we have forgotten
the wisdom which our grandmothers
knew-the knowledge of doing well and
wisely the daily tasks that lie around
us, without which all things must 90
awry. The need of skilled hands is be-
ing partially met in our large cities by
technical schools for boys and girls. 1t
is certainly the duty of every mother in
the land to educate her daughters care
fully in all domestic matters. Let each
little one over eight years of age have a
week in the kitchen alternately, and
each day of this week give her an hours
or half-hOur's instruction in some dish
which shall appear upon the table. Let
this instruction be systematic. Begin
with simple dishes. Let the child of
eight begin with potatoes, pairing them
and taking out the eyes carefully.
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be poured over them, how to tell when
the tea-kettle is boiling, that half an
hour will usually cook potato. Show
her how to pour the water off from them
when done, how to shake them to make
them mealy and how you stand them
on the back of the stove, covering them
with coarse towel to absorb the moist
ure. After one lesson let her do all the
work herself the next time, and so on
till her potatoes are as near perfection
as possible. A little wise praise will
lift the spirits of the little cook wonder
fully. An omelet is another dish which
child can readily learn to cook well.
Among the first lessons in cooking
teach the child to make bread. 1t is
not at all probable that she has strength
to knead large batch of bread, but she
can readily make a small quantity of
rolls for breakfast. Let her learn the
motion of kneading. 1t is an excellent
gymnastic exercise, which cannot be of
anything but benefit physically, develop
ing the muscles of the chest. We have
seen delicious bread made by children
of ten. A little competition in the
family among the daughters as to whose
bread is best will help in the good cause
of instruction. Let the young cooks
then learn to cook meats, vegetables
and make tea and coffee thoroughly
then allow them to make cake and des-
serts. While one of the daughters of a
family is receiving instruction in cook
ing, another can have an hours instruc-
ton in work upstairs. Teach them to dc
this work properly. Every healthy girl
in our land should care for her own
room, with slight assistance, after she
is eight years old, for the education, in
order to know how to sweep, dust and
lay a bed properly. DO not set her to dc
it like task. Go with her and praise
her work. When well done, give hei
everything you easily can to make hei
room lovely and cultivate in her the
love, which is innate in every woman's
heart, of neat, homelike surroundings
We believe every one in the house, if il
is possible, should have room of theil
own-a sanctum where they can claim
exclusive ownership. 1t certainly raises
the girls individual sense of dignity
Sewing is task which should never bt
forgotten. A girl should be laugh
early all the different stitches of the eX
pert hand seamstress. She should dc
her own mending, if possible, but we do
not believe any child should use sew
ing machine before she is a full-growr
woman. Machine work has prostratet
in disease many grown women, and il
too hard for a young girl to attempt, un
less the necessities of the family require
it. Do not keep a child more than al
hour steadily at the needle, but let he
run out in the sunshine and breeze, i
her task is not done, and return to it
Such education at home as we speak o
need take little time, and in after years
when the child is woman, it may brin!
her more sincere pleasure than all thu
education she will receive in academies
and colleges. How many unhappy
homes throughout the land may be du
to ignorance on the part of the wife ant
mother of the little daily matters whicl
contribute to the comfort of the family
How many lives are wrecks broker
down by the burden of life-work onl
for want of knowledge. There is n
duty which should appeal so strongl
to the Christian mother who desire
her daughters should lead noble, usefu
lives, than the duty of educating ther
to bear their share in the work the
must do, or attend to doing, whethe
they be rich or poor. For there is N
choice in this work-a-day world of ours
Ye must either work or steal, b
whatsoever name We call your stea
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